Dawnwind 1: Last Man Standing (15 page)
“That bothers you?
The idea that you may not be giving them the truth?
Just your perception of it?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop answering their questions,” said Uqqex.
“The Junians copied several infobases before they left your planet.
Right?
I’m sure these people could find the answers they want in that info.
All they have to do is look for it.”
“A lot of them do, but then they submit their interpretation of the answers to me, asking for my input.”
She laughed.
“They’re using you like an editor.”
“I suppose so.
I never thought of it like that.”
“If these people are making you crazy, John, you should stop dealing with them.”
“Spoken like a sane person.”
His eyes crinkled with mirth.
“You know, Uqqex, you’re the only person who ever calls me crazy.
Everybody else walks around that word with me like it’s a bomb.”
“Well, you are crazy,” said the Zerraxi woman, matter-of-factly.
“You’ve said so yourself in our comms.”
He laughed.
“I wonder how well that went down with the eavesdroppers?”
Uqqex grinned.
“Who knows?
No one’s shown up to haul you off to an asylum, so they must not be too concerned.”
“Either that or they’re just too polite to do it,” said Epcott.
He shook his head, and stood.
“Feel up to a ramble around the island?”
“Of course.
Let me change into something more practical.”
* * * * *
Epcott wore a dark green warmsuit, but exchanged the transparent helmet for a knit cap that he shoved on his head.
Uqqex wondered where he had gotten it, since only a Junian masochist would choose to wear a hat.
She was surprised when he produced a gray, metallic gun.
“What is that?” asked Uqqex.
As she watched, Epcott checked over the weapon before slapping it against his hip.
The gun stuck to the warmsuit.
“A neural scrambler.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Do we need to be armed?”
“It’s just a precaution, in case the spearbeaks decide we look like dinner.”
“Spearbeaks,” Uqqex repeated.
“Have you ever seen one?”
“No.”
“They’re big, avian predators.” Epcott spread his arms wide, giving her an idea of their wingspan.
“They use their bills to impale fish and other birds.
Nasty creatures.”
“Have they ever attacked you?”
“Just once.
I got too close to their nesting grounds on the west side of the island.
We won’t be going there.”
Uqqex nodded and followed him outside.
It was a brisk morning, but nowhere near as cold as the previous evening.
The snow lay in deep drifts around the house.
Epcott glanced at it, then at Uqqex.
“Do you want to take the air-sled?”
“No.”
She knelt in the knee-deep snow, gathered up a handful and smeared it across her face.
“This is invigorating.”
“And people say I’m the crazy one.”
She snorted and threw a snowball at him.
* * * * *
Although the knotlimbs tangled their branches overhead, on the ground, Uqqex saw that their trunks were set far apart from each other, forming natural corridors.
Overhead, the sky was blacked out by a layer of snow lying across the twisting branches.
Occasionally, a strong wind would rustle a branch, causing lumps of snow and ice to fall.
Epcott led the way.
It was quiet, except for the wind whispering through the trees.
In the distance, Uqqex thought she could hear the sea, and the shrill screams of what she assumed were spearbeaks.
“Is it always so quiet here?”
“It’s Stormsky,” said Epcott.
“Most of the birds have migrated south and a lot of the animals that stay behind are hibernating.”
Uqqex nodded.
It made sense.
Even if Juni’s orbit didn’t cause extreme temperature variations, the planet still had seasons.
The native lifeforms would be in tune with them.
“I’ve never spent much time outside the cities,” she admitted.
“I love it up here,” said Epcott.
“It’s quiet and people aren’t so relentlessly cheerful.”
“Junian optimism can get a bit tiresome, can’t it?”
“Sometimes.”
“Still,” said Uqqex, “most of them mean well.
Have you spoken to your friends, back in Ted Dov?”
“I comm them,” said Epcott.
“I think Vesu has a better idea as to why I’m here than Olu, which is just strange.
After all, she’s the instructor in mental health.”
He paused, gestured her forward.
“Look there.”
She followed his pointed finger, saw something glimmer among the tree trunks.
“What is it?”
“A starjelly flower.”
They walked toward the shimmering blue glow.
As they drew nearer, Uqqex decided the blossom was aptly named.
It clung to the side of a knotlimb tree, a translucent bloom with large, fleshy petals.
The petals were scattershot through with lambent blue veins.
“It’s beautiful.”
Epcott nodded.
“And deadly.
Starjelly flowers are poisonous.”
She drew back, studying the flower with new eyes.
“Really?”
“Yes.
I’ve learned from personal experience that if it glows here, don’t mess with it.”
“I sense a story there.”
“Not much of one.
After I first set up here, I was out exploring and walked through a bed of fireflowers.”
She gave him a questioning look.
“They secrete an irritant,” explained Epcott.
“It burns like hell.”
“That doesn’t sound pleasant.”
He shrugged.
“Live and learn.
After that, I started researching the local wildlife so I could avoid any other unpleasant surprises.”
“Was this before or after the spearbeaks attacked you?”
“Before,” said Epcott.
“I didn’t realize the cursed things had nesting grounds on the west side of the island, or I would have stayed clear of them.”
They moved on, leaving the starjelly flower behind them.
After a few moments of slogging through the snow, the knotlimbs thinned.
They came out of them, onto a snowy hill.
Epcott began to climb it and Uqqex followed, keeping a wary eye on the sky for any irate spearbeaks.
At the top of the hill, she gasped.
What she had thought was a hill was actually a cliff.
It dropped away in front of her, into salty air.
Below them, the beach was dark and still, except for the tide slapping against it.
The water was dark and foamy.
“During Clearsky,” said Epcott, “there’s a trail leading down to that beach.
You can fish and dig clams to your heart’s content, and live entirely off what you catch.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
“Of course, after a while, you get sick of eating that stuff and you want a bit of red meat.
Maybe a pie.
Something sweet.”
“Is that what Ked and Teso were delivering?” asked Uqqex, amused.
“Steaks and pies?”
Epcott grinned.
“Among other things.”
“You’re being deliberately mysterious now.”
“Am I?”
Her lip twitched, revealing a hint of sharp canines.
“You are.
Why did you ask me out here, John?”
“Because you’re the most honest person that I know, Uqqex, and I wanted to ask you a question.”
“About what?”
“Have you ever considered becoming a Junian citizen?”
The question caught her by surprise.
She frowned and turned to the sea.
In the distance, dark silhouettes dove into the water.
They emerged with writhing bodies impaled on long bills.
“No,” said Uqqex.
“I am.”
She glanced at him.
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got no place else to go.”
“You’ve never thought about returning to your homeworld?”
“What would be the point?
It’s a graveyard.
There’s no future for me there.”
Uqqex frowned.
“The Junians are just abandoning it?”
“It’s a plague world.
Who’d want to colonize a plague world?”
“You’ve been doing your homework.”
“I’ve made some inquiries,” admitted Epcott.
“You know,” said Uqqex, “you don’t need to be a citizen to live on Juni.
Taiaxa isn’t and she’s been here for ages.”
“Tai has Zerraxi citizenship.
I, on the other hand, am a legal nonentity with no official status.
There is no one with authority to represent my wishes or protect my rights.”
Uqqex frowned.
She studied Epcott for a moment.
“What aren’t you telling me, John?”
A startled look flashed across his face, followed almost immediately by a rueful grin.
“I should have known you’d see past the obvious.”
“Well?”
He looked down, gloved hands fidgeting with the clasps of the warmsuit.
“You can’t join the Junian Guard if you’re not a citizen.”
“You want to join the Guard?” Uqqex stared at him.
“Why?”
“I need to do something with my life,” said Epcott.
“Something with meaning.
Do you understand?”
She snorted.
“I’m an artist.
Of course, I understand.
Why the Guard?”
“I think I’d like to see a bit more of the galaxy before I die.
The Guard is the best way to do that.”
“If you wanted to travel you could hire on with one of the offworld transport companies,” pointed out Uqqex.
“If all I wanted to do was travel, I could buy my own ship.
But I want to do more than that.
My life needs a purpose.
I need to contribute to something.”
She frowned at him.
“You could buy your own ship?
How?”
“Consultancy fees and some lucky investments.”
“You’re making the specialists pay you to review their work.”
Uqqex stared at him with newfound respect.
“I had no idea.”
He grinned.
“How do you think I bought the island?”
She blinked in surprise.
“You own this rock?
How much money do you have, John?”
